The present invention relates to an arrangement for the interchange of data between a rigid or semi-rigid data medium and a data interchange device, particularly a reader of data contained in the medium.
The invention relates more particularly to such an arrangement intended to be fitted to a motor vehicle and in which the data medium, which is, for example, in the form of a card or badge of rectangular overall shape, carries data identifying the user of the vehicle which, when he or she introduces his or her badge into the reading device, authorizes him or her to use the vehicle by, in particular, allowing him or her to start the vehicle engine.
Numerous examples of such arrangements in which the data medium is a rigid or semi-rigid card comprising, for example, an integrated circuit, or chip, which is connected to reading means of the device by electrical contacts and/or by a data interchange antenna, are known.
When the badge or the card is introduced into the device, the card is introduced manually into a housing in the unit in which the data medium occupies a determined active position, and the device which receives the card or the badge comprises means for longitudinally holding this data medium in an active position in the unit so that data interchange can occur correctly.
In the most widespread design, these holding means consist of simple brakes, that is to say that there are elastically deformable tabs which cooperate by friction with lateral edges and/or with the large faces of the card.
Such a design of the means for holding the data medium in the reading device is not entirely satisfactory for applications to motor vehicles where, as the vehicle travels along, the device is subjected to a great deal of vibration which gradually causes the data medium to be ejected or at the very least to shift from its active, so-called reading position.
In addition, in the case of applications to motor vehicles, it is necessary to be able not only to hold the data medium in an active position, but also to lock it by immobilizing it in this position, in response to a locking command, so as to prevent the driver or a passenger from being able to extract the data medium from the reading device at an inopportune moment under certain vehicle use configurations.
In order to improve the convenience of use of such an arrangement, it has already been proposed that means be provided to assist with introducing the data medium into the device and/or extracting it therefrom.
To this end, it has already been proposed that the device should comprise a motorized slide into which the card is inserted manually and which is then electrically made to move between its position of rest in which the card is introduced and an active reading position in which the slide brings the card to face reading means.
Such a design is complex and cumbersome and ill-suited to being incorporated into an application for a motor vehicle.
With a view to providing means for assisting with ejection, numerous applications have also been proposed in which the user, on introduction, works against a return spring which stores up energy, the card being immobilized in the active position by operated retaining means, the spring, previously stressed, restoring the energy with a view to assisting with the extraction of the card, it being possible for this assistance to go so far as to completely eject the card from the housing in the unit.
Such a design is not entirely satisfactory either insofar as it requires significant effort at the end of the travel of introducing the card and insofar as the known means of retention against the force applied to the card by the elastic return means are not suited to applications to motor vehicles, as there is the risk that as the vehicle is driven along, the vibration will trigger these means and eject the card at a dangerous and inopportune moment.
In order to overcome the drawbacks just mentioned, there has already been proposed, in French Patent Application No. 98/07250, an arrangement for the interchange of data between a rigid or semi-rigid data medium and a data interchange device, particularly a reader of data contained in the medium, of the type comprising a unit into which the medium, generally in the form of a card, is introduced manually into a housing in the unit in which it occupies a determined active position, and of the type in which the device comprises means for longitudinally holding the data medium in an active position in the unit, which means comprise a lever for immobilizing the support and an electromagnet made to lock the immobilizing lever in its angular position which immobilizes the data medium, the mobile core plunger of which electromagnet constitutes, via a first free end, a locking finger, which can be made to project out of the casing the electromagnet to extend facing a part of the immobilizing lever so as to prevent the latter from rotating from its immobilizing position into a retracted position which allows the data medium to be extracted from the unit.
In the event of electrical failure, particularly when the mobile core plunger of the locking electromagnetic is elastically returned to the position for locking the immobilizing lever, it is impossible for the data medium to be extracted manually.
In order to overcome this drawback, the invention proposes an arrangement of the type mentioned earlier on, characterized in that this arrangement comprises a member for manually unlocking the immobilizing lever which acts on the mobile core plunger of the electromagnetic to cause the locking finger to retract and thus release the immobilizing lever.
According to other features of the invention:
the unlocking member is an unlocking lever, mounted so that it can pivot about a fixed axis of the unit, which comprises a radial actuating arm, the free end of which can be acted upon manually to cause the unlocking lever to rotate from a position of rest in which the mobile plunger is free to move into an unlocked position, and which comprises a radial unlocking arm, the free end of which can cooperate with a part of the mobile core plunger of the electromagnetic to move the latter when the unlocking lever pivots from its position of rest into its unlocked position;
the unlocking lever is elastically returned to its position of rest;
the unlocking lever comprises a turn arm which can flex elastically when the unlocking lever pivots from its position of rest into its unlocked position and the free end of which is immobilized with respect to the unit;
the arrangement comprises a unlocking push-rod which is mounted so that it can slide with respect to the unit in a direction that is orthogonal to the axis of pivoting of unlocking lever, a first end of which cooperates with the free end of the actuating arm and the second end of which makes it possible for the push rod to be acted on manually;
the first end of the unlocking push rod is connected to the free end of the arm that actuates the unlocking lever by a flexible connecting tab which forms an articulation hinge;
the unlocking push rod includes, near its first end, stop means which cooperate with a portion opposite belonging to the actuating arm so as to limit the active travel of the push rod in the direction of unlocking the immobilizing lever;
the lever and the unlocking push rod are formed as a single integral part as a plastic moulding;
the free end of the unlocking arm cooperates with a stop formed at the second free end of the mobile core plunger of the electromagnetic;
the unlocking arm extends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of movement of the mobile core plunger of the electromagnetic, and the actuating arm is substantially parallel to this axis of movement.
the axis of pivoting of the immobilizing lever is parallel to the plane in which the longitudinal direction of introduction of the data medium lies and is parallel to the direction in which the mobile core plunger of the electromagnetic moves and the axis of pivoting of the unlocking lever is perpendicular to the said plane;
the axis of pivoting of the immobilizing lever is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of introduction of the data medium;
the arrangement is fitted to a motor vehicle in which the anti-theft functions are partially or completely fulfilled by data processing, some of which data, contained in the data medium, represents an authorized user or a group of authorized users of the vehicle.